The presence of road works associated with road segments of a vehicle road system poses many challenges for vehicles travelling within the system. In particular, vehicles travelling along the road segments occupied at least partly by a road work, and which vehicles then have to pass the road work area, are affected. Commonly, due to the decreased accessibility of the road segment to which the road work area is associated, the speed drops for vehicles having to pass the road work area and traffic congestion may start to build up. This congestion may stretch out long before the actual starting point of the road work area.
Generally, the information associated with a road work area is limited to an indication of a starting point for the road work area. For the vehicles travelling along the road segment including the road work area, such an indication can be a road (work) sign or panel located alongside the road informing of upcoming road works, often shortly ahead. The road work sign or panel may even be located almost directly at the starting point of the road works, hence imposing a more or less heads-up warning, or it may be that an indication and/or partial road block appears that closes a portion of the road segment, forcing the driver to change lane for example. Such road work warnings, presented close up to the actual starting point of the road works, often leave little choice to change the travel route to avoid passing the road work area.
The changed driving conditions at a road work area commonly cause an unexpected increase in travel time for the vehicles passing the road work area. Further, when entering into the road work area, it is difficult to foresee how much longer the travel time will be and to what extent passing the road work area will affect the travel. This uncertainty can increase the stress level for a driver of the vehicle and thereby increase the risk of traffic accidents. Noticeably, vehicles passing in the vicinity of a road segment associated with a road work area can also be affected, for example by traffic congestion building up long before the actual starting point of the road work area.
Information indicating upcoming road works may be received by an information system on-board a vehicle, for example via a wireless communication system. In this case, the information associated with the road work area is often collected in a road database. Usually, the road database is updated manually. However, a drawback of manual update and input of data is that it is often not performed frequently enough to provide current relevant information and there is further risk that incorrect data is inserted, due to human error. This can have a further negative effect in that, when the information used, for example by a driver information system onboard the vehicle, is repeatedly incorrect, a driver may tend to start to disregard or neglect the information given, thus rendering the information system useless.
To this end, the development of driver information functions and autonomous driving of vehicles places further demands on improved accuracy, reliability and completeness of data and the characteristics related to road work areas, for their proper function.
Thus, following the above, it is desirable to establish information which comprises actual characteristics associated with a road work area, preferably not only an indication of a starting point, but for example how long the road work stretches from the starting point.